A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing, especially in the hands of marketdroids. John Fluevog, makers of extreme, clubby footgear, have a new promotion on: an “open source” shoe design initiative. Here’s how it works: you design a shoe, they build it and sell it, and you give them exclusive rights in perpetuity to the shoe, which they don’t share with anyone. Of course, this has nothing to do with open source — it is, in fact, the opposite of an open license. Here’s the clickthrough agreement:

The submitting party understands and agrees that submission of this design to John Fluevog Shoes Ltd. constitutes transfer of all ownership of the design solely to John Fluevog Shoes Ltd., who will retain exclusive rights for use in any form and in all media

I’ve sent email to their marketing department, inviting them to respond here. We’ll see. Link Discuss (Thanks, Joey!)